The confrontation between technology and human primordial drives takes on both a cerebral and emotional weight in this trilogy.
The trilogy by Canadian artist Jeremy Shaw, who lives and works in Berlin, depicts subversive subcultures at three different points in the future.
Quickeners (2014), is set 500 years in the future and tells the story of Human Atavism Syndrome (HAS). The mysterious affliction spreads to a small part of the immortal population and leads them, just like their mortal ancestors, to feel a drive to pray, sing, dance, carry out shamanistic rituals and seek out ecstasy.
Liminals (2017) is set three generations in the future and is a chapter from a documentary about marginalised societies. When it is discovered that ‘faith’ – an archaic and dissolved concept – had inconspicuously evolved to become a biological imperative for the survival of humanity, a clandestine and radical group expands the brains of their members using ‘Machine DNA’. Through forgotten cathartic rituals, they hope to gain access to The Liminal – a speculative space between the physical and the digital. There, they predict, humanity will proceed to a new phase of evolution.
The story of I Can See Forever (2018), takes place 40 years in the future and is a pseudo-television-documentary about the sole survivor of a failed government experiment to create a synthesis of man and machine. Born with biology defined by 8.7% Machine DNA and uninterested in the virtual-reality trappings of his time, Dale has committed himself to a life immersed in dance. It is only during his unique, virtuosic performances that he is achieve complete digital harmony and physical presence.
Part of NORMAL SCHNORMAL, a multidisciplinary programme on normality and other deviations.
CA/DE, 2015-2018, 96’ (33’+20’+43’)
English spoken, English subtitles, starts every 120'
